Marek Bucko: Talks with Lukashenka pointless
- 13.09.2011, 9:40
The former deputy head of the Polish embassy in Minsk believes that trade in political prisoners is immoral.
“Political prisoners would be totally against bargaining and trade in them,” the diplomat and expert Marek Bucko stated.
On Monday the Foreign Ministry of Bulgaria refuted reports of a Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that at the meeting with the head of Belarus Foreign Minister of Bulgaria Nikolay Mladenov offered 2 bn euros for release of all political prisoners. But could such a question be brought up in the contacts between the EU and Belarus at all?
“Considering the previous policy of the EU and that no actions of the EU can make Alyaksandr Lukashenka release political prisoners now, I think that someone in the EU could have come to a conclusion that the only variant is to pay… despite the ethical and moral aspects, to the promises not to trade in political prisoners, not to have bargaining with Lukashenka,” the European Radio for Belarus was told by Marek Bucko, First Secretary of the Polish Embassy in Minsk, deputy chairman of “Freedom and Democracy Foundation”.
“It is certainly very bad from the moral point of view. Certainly, there is a desire to release political prisoners by all manner of means, as it is very important for their families and for them, especially for those whose health condition is poor, for instance like Mr Bandarenka, or Klaskouski, who has three children and a wife. I think that now many political prisoners would vigorously oppose trading in them,” the diplomat believes.
Bucko insists on increasing pressure on Lukashenka’s regime:
“I had said on many occasions that only force and strong economic sanctions, as well as visa sanctions, can have an effect on Lukashenka, but not at the scale they exist now, but dozens times stronger… But European officials simply fear such actions, their approach is very delicate, and they are trying to pursue behind-the-scenes policy. They are trying to do bargaining in some way, but how they are succeeding in that had been witnessed by us for many years.